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We have been visiting with family across the UK to celebrate Christmas the last few days, so I thought I would create a Christmas page to wish you all the best for the holiday season!

I started by stamping the page with a Collage Number stamp from Gummiapan using Versamark Watermark ink which I dried using a heat gun; I find drying this ink with the heat gun achieves better watermark images than leaving it to dry naturally. Then I applied Paris Dusk and Teal Zeal Memento Inks using a blending tool to gradually build up the colours. The blue colours were a bit bright so I toned them down by dragging a Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink pad over the page giving it a lovely shimmer and frosty appearance. Then I stamped some snowflakes over the background using the Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink and also the Paris Dusk Memento Ink again. The pine branches are stamped using Pistachio and Cottage Ivy Memento Inks and the pine cones using Rich Cocoa Memento Ink and I also splattered the page with white DecoArt acrylic paint. Next I used my Big Shot machine to die cut: some snowflakes by Tonic Studios out of white card stock; some green holly leaves using white cardstock which I coloured using the Cottage Ivy Memento Ink and Twisted Citron Distress Ink; some holly berries from white card stock which I coloured using Love Letter Memento Ink; and finally some berry branches from white card stock and brown design paper using Tim Holtz Garden Greens Thinlets. The white snowflakes are stuck in place using a Zig Memory glue pen and I added some silver snowflake relief stickers to the background too. I arranged the other die cuts with a recycled Christmas card, which I saved from last year as I loved the vintage design, and also a pretty white and silver snowflake sticker. To finish, I added some Christmas Red Stickles from Ranger to the holly berries to give them some glittery sparkle.

We found some lovely Christmas displays at our local garden centre this year, I love this one with the pretty snowflake lights and ceiling, and of course the owls!

This vintage style flower display looks very festive with the poinsettias and jewel colours.

It seems that upside-down trees are all the rage this year too (grin!).

We went to this local garden centre on our way to Garstang where we went to the Royal Oak for lunch. We sat in one of the little rooms off the bar which contained this beautiful stained glass window, isn’t it amazing! The drinks that are included in the window design means that I can join the T Gang over at T Stands for Tuesday too – Happy T Day!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

Bleubeard and Elizabeth who blog at Altered Book Lover are hosting My Favorite Season, or ‘Tis the Season challenge over at Art Journal Journey, so I’m pleased to join them with Christmas page!

I’m joining the Christmas Challenge over at The Artistic Stamper as I included stamping on my Christmas Wishes page.

I’m pleased to be able to join in the Christmas challenge fun over at Country View Challenges with my festive page.

As Santa is on his way, over at Try it on Tuesday our new challenge for the next two weeks is Guess Who’s Coming? …. Santa, where you will find some amazing creations from my Design Team teamies to inspire you!

We would like to see a Santa somewhere on your creations, so here’s my Santa related art journal page – I hope you like it!

I started by covering the page with some Santa decoupage paper using a glue stick. Then I used some green card from a topper set which I cut into a rectangle and some strips, they are all edged with gold border outline stickers. I stuck them in place using double-sided tape along with a framed Santa image from the same topper set and an envelope addressed to Santa. Next I embellished the page with some gold relief stickers; this included Santa’s sleigh filled with gifts, snowflakes and stars and also some holly and candy canes which I added to the background. To finish, I added three 3D stickers of a candy cane, some holly and a little robin.

This pretty shop is in Lytham and is full of interesting items for the garden; it always has lovely displays that cascade onto the street front. It’s where our friends bought the metal Mushrooms for our garden, you can see them here.

It reminded me of my page with all the Santa memorabilia (grin!).

We always enjoy meeting up with our friends for a walk and a drink so whilst walking in Lytham we went to a café called Zest.

Sorry I haven’t been around the last week or so, my Dad has had heart surgery and I’ve been busy visiting him and helping my mum whilst he has been in hospital. I’m pleased to say he is home now and doing ok – yay!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

Bleubeard and Elizabeth who blog at Altered Book Lover are hosting My Favorite Season, or ‘Tis the Season challenge over at Art Journal Journey, so I’m pleased to join them with my festive Santa page!

Our new challenge at Try it on Tuesday for the next two weeks is Winter Wonderland, where you will find some amazing creations from my Design Team teamies!

For my art journal page, I had so much fun creating a winter wonderland for my Merry Moose. I fell in love with this Merry Moose die set from Tim Holtz as soon as I saw it and finally succumbed to purchasing it last week, so I just couldn’t wait to use it and it didn’t disappoint – I love it (grin!).

To start, I stamped the pretty snowflakes using the Simon Says Stamp Frozen Fractals stamp set and Versamark Watermark ink which I covered with white Stampendous embossing powder. I shook and tapped any excess powder off the page and then I used a heat gun to melt the embossing powder until it became smooth and dimensional with a glossy finish. Next I positioned a circular stencil onto the page to depict the sun and also a hand cut paper template to mask out the foreground. Then I painted the sky background using my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour paint set; I did this by wetting the page with water first and then applying Ultramarine Pale, Ultramarine and Turquoise Blue colours using my paintbrush, gradually shading and blending the paints so that they were lighter around the sun. When dry, I splattered the page with white acrylic paint and then I defined the edge of the foreground more using Paris Dusk and Danube Blue Memento Inks and a blending tool. I removed the foreground mask and also added another line of snow using a mask and the same inks. I added some colour to the snowflakes in the foreground by painting them with the Ultramarine and Turquoise Blue watercolours too. For the sun I applied a light wash of Lemon Yellow watercolour paint and when dry, I covered it with some Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink to add some shine. The wording is stamped using the blue Memento Inks again and overlaid with the Platinum Planet Brilliance Ink and I added a little of the Turquoise Blue watercolour paint to the letters so that it colour matched the background more.

The trees are die cut using the Merry Moose Thinlets by Tim Holtz from Sizzix and my Big Shot Machine. I used some brown wood effect paper from Tim Holtz and also some blue glittery paper for the dripping snow dies; they are stuck to the page using a Zig Memory glue pen. Next I added a puffy snow effect using Inkylicious Fluffy Puffy Stuff which you apply and then heat with a heat gun to make it 3-dimensional; it was so much fun seeing the snow come to life (grin!). I also die cut some snowflakes out of the same blue glitter paper and embellished them with the Fluffy Puffy Stuff too and then stuck them to the page. I really need to use the fluffy puffy stuff again, just so I can write fluffy puffy some more (double grin!).

To finish, I added the Merry Moose which is die cut three times, once out of cream linen finish card stock and then twice out of white card stock; I layered them together so the linen finish was on the top. I masked off his antlers and then coloured him using Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso Distress Inks blending the colours with a blending tool. Then I removed the masking tape and coloured the antlers with Antique Linen Distress Ink. I stuck him in place and then decided that he needed a scarf to keep him warm, so I used the harness die cut from the Thinlet set and fashioned one together using the blue glitter paper and white card stock which I coloured with the Paris Dusk Memento Ink. It was fiddly to make but I think it completes his look beautifully, don’t you (grin!).

We have been lucky enough to see moose several times in the wild on our travels to America and so I love everything moose! We have a few moose items around the house from our travels too including these beautiful mugs which we were purchased at Booth Bay in Maine. Today they are filled with hot chocolate that has Pumpkin Spice syrup in it and topped with whipped cream – yum! As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m saying a big hello to the T Gang and wishing you all a very happy T Day!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it on Tuesday, as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m also joining in the fun over at Moo Mania & More and their Tic, Tac, Toe theme (Designer Paper – Glistening Season from Tim Holtz Paper Stash, Die-Cut – Merry Moose, Circles – on the scarf and the sun).

I’m also pleased to join A Vintage Journey and their Paper Stash challenge this month as I was inspired by my new Tim Holtz Merry Moose Thinlets so used the linen and glitter papers that have been in my craft stash for a while as well as the Tim Holtz Paper Stash pad to create my Mixed Media style page.

Over at That’s Crafty! Challenge Blog their theme is Winter Wonderland so I’m pleased to join this challenge with my Merry Moose Winter Wonderland page.

I’m also pleased to be able to join the Baby It’s Cold Outside challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with as it must be cold with my Merry Moose wearing his scarf (grin!).

With the embossing powder that I used for my pretty stamped snowflakes, I’m also joining Fashionable Stamping Challenges and their Resist It challenge too.

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of the materials that were used to create this art journal page:

With the Christmas season almost upon us, I created an art journal page inspired by the Glistening Season Pion Design papers, a Gummiapan stamp, some of my favourite colours of Tsukineko Inks and also some pretty Swedish House Crafts Fabric Flowers – I hope you like it!

If you would like to see how this page came together, the full process is detailed below.

To start I tried out a new technique which was great fun; I stamped the Reed Plant stamp from Gummiapan onto the background of the page using Versamark Watermark ink which I dried using a heat gun (I found drying the ink with a heat gun achieved better watermark images). Then I applied Paris Dusk and Teal Zeal Memento Inks using a blending tool, gradually building up the colour which made the reed images that I had stamped appear (grin!).

Next I stamped the Gummiapan stamp over the page again using the Paris Dusk and Teal Zeal Memento Inks. As I wanted more of a grungy vintage look, I dragged Rich Cocoa Memento ink pad over the edges of the page, then I applied the same ink to a blending mat, spritzed with water and pressed the mat onto the page. I also flicked some of this watered down ink using a paintbrush onto the page, along with some splatters of Parchment Liquitex acrylic paint.

With my background complete, I cut out some of the tags and images from the Glistening Seasons Pion Design paper and used scissors and Rich Cocoa and Toffee Crunch Memento Ink to distress the edges. Then I arranged these papers onto the page with some pieces of doily and die cut foliage using double-sided tape; for the foliage I used the reverse side of the Pion Design paper which was a lovely silver-grey colour and also some dark green paper from my craft stash.

I used the reverse side of the Pion Design paper again to create my snowflakes along with some blue vellum that was left over from a previous project using a die cut and my Big Shot machine. I also created a wreath and little fir-tree twigs from the remnants of the holly die cuts which was fun and a bit fiddly (grin!).

To finish the page, I added the snowflakes, wreath and twigs to the page along with some little blue gems, a bow, the blue Swedish House Crafts Fabric Flowers and three hearts which were cut from the Pion Design paper.

I’d like to thank Swedish House Crafts for having me as part of their Guest Design Team – Happy Crafting!

The Glistening Season paper design, that I used on my page, reminded me of some Christmas displays at a Garden Centre that we visit every year with family, isn’t this winter scene beautiful!

These little gnomes were really cute too …

… and not forgetting Santa Claus (grin!).

It’s hard to believe that there are only five weeks left until Christmas, but before I get carried away with thinking about Christmas … I just wanted to wish a very Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are celebrating today!

I’m also joining the lovely Wen and her Simply Neutrals Tuesday party over at Apple Apricot with my neutral Christmas focal papers (I hope you don’t mind the pop of colour from my blue wintry background).

Its time for a new challenge over at Try it On Tuesday and our theme for the next two weeks, is Friends and Family.

You’ll find some beautiful inspiration from my Design Team teamies over at Try it on Tuesday too. My art journal page today celebrate Friends, Family and Life – I hope you like it!

I started by stencilling the background of leaves using a Falling Leaves stencil from Newton’s Nook and six different colours of Distress Ink. I blended and shaded the colours so that the Vintage Photo and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink were around the edges of the page, then as I worked towards the centre I added Seedless Preserves, Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade and finally finished with Mustard Seed Distress Ink in the centre of the page. I also positioned the stencil so that the larger leaves were around the outside of the page and the smaller leaves were in the centre. Then I stamped a maple leaf stamp and oak leaf stamp from Tim Holtz Autumn Blueprints stamp set onto the page using black Archival Ink. I coloured the leaves and also the leaf names using the Seedless Preserve, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed Distress Ink with a paintbrush. Then I shaded under the bottom edge of each leaf using a Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker to give them a shadow so they had a 3D look. Next I added some Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers which read “let life surprise you”, “live your life” and “life is good”. I drew boxes and arrows around them to match the blueprint design of the leaves using a black Derwent Graphik marker. The large sentiment which reads “Life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful” is a Pocket Card from Tim Holtz and is stuck to the page using double-sided foam tape. I also added the words “Thankful”, “Friends” and “Family” using Tim Holtz Letter Labels and used the Cold Grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker to add a shadow under them which finished the page.

The bands and shades of colour on my page reminds me of the beautiful mat that our forever friend’s bought us for our wedding anniversary present; it travelled back from America with us and now sits in my hallway at the bottom of the stairs. It is such a happy reminder of the time we spent with them (grin!).

On our wedding anniversary we also had an amazing Maine lobster dinner at their house too, which was so delicious!

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m saying a big hello to the T Gang and sharing our drinks, red wine, iced water or a beer which as you can see is served in my special Red Sox Beer cooler (grin!) – Happy T day!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs, like Try it On Tuesday, as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika from BioArtGal, who is hosting the Vintage or Modern challenge over at Art Journal Journey as this page celebrates happy memories with friends and family!

As I incorporate squares into the design of this page with the frames of colour from the stencilled background, stamped Autumn BluePrint leaf images and also the sentiments, I’m pleased to join the Square It challenge over at The Artistic Stamper.

We really enjoyed learning all about baseball whilst in America and watching the Boston Red Sox in the playoffs on TV. On our return we continued to follow the games being played and were delighted when they won the World Series – Go Red Sox!

For the background I stamped with a Hessian stamp using Pistachio Memento Ink and a Sketchy stamp using Potter’s Clay Memento Ink; both the stamps are by Kaisercraft and I chose the colours to depict the grass and sand of the baseball field. Next I added some vintage baseball images and words which are rub-on transfers by Royal & Langnickel. To depict the baseballs, I drew circles with baseball stitching using a black Uni Pin marker around some of the edges of the page. The stars are stencilled using Pébéo modelling paste and coloured using Red Cherry Faber-Castell Gelato. To finish, I added some Boston Red Sox images which are coloured using a red Uni Posca Paint Pen and stuck into place using a glue stick or double-sided foam tape.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing my Punkin Beer by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in its Boston Red Sox bottle cooler; while we stayed with our friends it became a tradition for me to always have this cooler as they won the first time I used it so I was told it bought the Red Sox good luck (grin!). This photo was taken while on the party boat on the lake and you can find more photos of our time on the boat here if you are interested. My sandwich is turkey salad – yum! Happy T Day!

My post is a little shorter this week as yesterday I started my month of guest designing over at Simon Says Stamp for their Monday Challenge. Thank you to everyone for their kind comments on yesterday’s post, your support is very much appreciated!

I’m so excited and honoured to be in the Designer Spotlight and this week’s Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is Make Your Own Background, it would be fabulous to see you there (grin!).

Challenges

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika from BioArtGal, who is hosting the Vintage or Modern challenge over at Art Journal Journey as this page captures happy memories and I’m sure that she will join me to celebrate their win of the World Series – Go Red Sox!

I love boats so living the Lake Life with our friends in Maine was an amazing experience! My page today captures the serenity of the lake, fall colours and also a Loon, which is a type of water bird that we saw on one of our boat trips around the lake (grin!).

I started by applying Hickory Smoke Distress Ink onto the page by stamping the ink pad onto an acrylic block and scraping the block over the page so the ink caught on the texture of the paper. I then applied water over the top using a paintbrush to disperse some of the colour across the page. Next I painted Salty Ocean Distress Ink across the page, keeping my brushstrokes horizontal, so it looked like water; to do this I applied the ink to an acrylic block again and picked the ink up with a paintbrush. We saw lots of beautiful fall colours reflected in the lake on our boat trips so I also added Mustard Seed, Fired Brick and Seedless Perserves Distress Ink the same way as I did the Hickory Smoke ink. Then I toned down the colours using Pébéo white gesso which I applied with my finger to vary the coverage; this softened the colours and produced a rippled effect so it looked like the water of the lake. The wording “Hello Lake Life” is a Pocket Card from Tim Holtz idea-ology collection, I added the letters to produce the word “Lake” by stamping black Archival Ink onto some card using an alphabet stamp by Dovecraft, cutting it out and sticking it onto the card. The Loon is cut from a notelet that my friend gave me and was used for the food shopping list. I defined the Loon markings, underlined the word “lake” and exaggerated the stripes on the wording using a black Derwent Graphik marker and a white Uniball gel pen so they stood out more. The fall leaves around the edge of the page are napkin which I ripped and stuck into place using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium; once dry I edged them with a Sanguine Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. I also stuck a couple of the leaves onto some recycled white card and when they were dry I cut them out and edged them with the sanguine marker. I arranged them on the page under the Pocket Card and added some cream jute flowers using Glossy Accents which finished the page.

I thought you may like to go boating with us, here is the view of the lake from the house and you can see the boat on the left-hand side.

It’s a pontoon party boat and is very luxurious …

… with it’s sofa type seating, as you can see my hubby was sitting very comfortably (grin!).

It afforded wonderful lake views with …

… some breathtaking reflections of the fall colours.

We even saw a Loon, which is called a Great Northern Diver here in the UK, who entertained us firstly by diving under the water and then by preening. We found out late one night that their call is quite distinctive and loud too (grin!).

I hope you enjoyed the boat trip and I think that the lake life would suit us very well, don’t you (double grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika from BioArtGal, who is hosting the Vintage or Modern challenge over at Art Journal Journey as this page captures happy memories of our Lake Life holiday.